Wednesday, May 1, 2013

"Dueling Influences"

The following thoughts arose after watching one of my three
favorite westerns, High Noon (1952), my
other two favorites being Red River
and Shane, though there are a dozen
more that are up there.

For those unfamiliar with this western classic (ranked #27
in the American Film Institute’s 2007 list of great films), High Noon concerns marshal Will Kane
(Gary Cooper) of Hadleyville, New Mexico, who, when the film begins, has just
married his Quaker wife, Amy (Grace Kelly) and is retiring from marshaling, the
couple leaving town to start a new, (Quaker wife insistent) more peaceful existence elsewhere.

At this point, news arrives that badman and gang leader
Frank Miller, who had been jailed and sentenced to hang, has been pardoned and
is on his way to join three henchmen, Miller intent on getting revenge on Kane
for apprehending him, and for taking his girlfriend, Helen Ramirez (played by
Katy Jurado.)And who wouldn’t
have?That woman en fuego!

We know Miller is serious about his revenge
scenario, because the ballad pervading the production (immortalized by Tex
Ritter) clearly states – from the marshal’s point of view):

He made a vow while in
states prison

Vowed it would be my
life or his’n…

The bare bones of the conflict are these:Miller and his confederates are gunning for
Kane (the gunning to begin when Miller’s train arrives at, you guessed it…

High Noon.

Complicating the proceedings is that Kane’s Quaker wife Amy
insists that Kane avoid the danger by simply being gone when Miller arrives
(they are already buggying their way elsewhere.)Turning the buggy around, Kane explains his
return to trouble with the simple, yet eloquent,

“I’ve got to, Amy.That’s the whole thing.”

(God, how I love that line!)

Quaker Amy promises that, if Kane goes back to town, they’re
finished, the nutshell of their dispute summarized in the lyric:

Do not forsake me, oh
my darlin’

You made that promise
when we wed.

Do not forsake me, oh
my darlin’

Although you’re
grievin’

Don’t think of leavin’

Until I shoot Frank
Miller dead.

Wait along…

Wait alo-ong (etc.,
but that’s got nothing to do with the story.)

The central portion of the movie involves Kane trying to
recruit townspeople to help him take on the Miller gang...

And nobody steps up.

Offering various rationales – all of them practical – the
people of Hadleyville (which Kane has heroically eradicated of outlaws) refuse
to be deputized.In the end, Kane has to
take on four gunslingers alone.

And so he does.(With
last-minute assistance from an unexpected source, but I’m not going to ruin it
for you, in case you want to check High
Noon out.The movie seems clichéd in
spots, but it should be remembered that many of those now clichés originated
with High Noon.)

So here’s the thing.The screenplay for High Noon was
written by Carl Foreman, who had once been a member of the Communist Party, had
quit, but was blacklisted (restricted from working) anyway for refusing “name
names” (of other Communist Party members.)

Blacklisted writers had an agonizing time during that
period.They lost their livelihoods, and
many, Foreman included, were required to leave the country to continue working.(Carl Foreman went to England, where, among
other things, he co-wrote the screenplay for The Bridge on the River Kwai, which received the “Best Adapted
Screenplay” Oscar, credited not to
the blacklisted Foreman – and fellow blacklisted co-writer Michael Wilson – but
to Pierre Boulle, who had written the original novel, and did not speak
English.)

It has often been conjectured that High Noon was inspired by
the blacklisting period, where people found themselves standing alone against
enormous “House on Un-American Activities Committee” pressure, and for various
reasons – all of them practical – no one would stand with them.If true, that
would be interesting – creative moviemakers employing a classic American,
generally ennobling film genre as a metaphorical vehicle concerning a period
when Americans…were not exactly at their best.

True or not, High Noon
incensed other moviemakers, such as actor John Wayne (who called High Noon “the most un-American thing
I’ve seen in my whole life”) and director Howard Hawks, who admitted, “I made Rio Bravo because I didn’t like High Noon.”Not only did Hawks make Rio Bravo (1959), a movie about a law officer
(John Wayne) fighting against overwhelming odds, in which assistance comes from
everywhichwhere, including Angie
Dickinson – who played “Feathers” – and Ricky Nelson – “Colorado”, Hawks made two
virtual remakes of Rio Bravo (also
starring John Wayne) – El Dorado
(1966) and Rio Lobo (1970.)

Those guys really hated High
Noon.

(WITH A JOHN WAYNE DELIVERY:) “Did they get the point of the movie?Americans help,
goddamit!And if that doesn’t sink in,
we’ll make two more movies saying
exactly the same thing.”

Movies based on conflicting beliefs?That’s what you get in a free country, which
is fine.The thing is, movies – and
media in general – can be very influential.What happens when the side with more dangerous beliefs produces a
better, more persuasive picture?

I may be a voice in the wilderness here, but I’m not sure I
want movies to decide these things.